When I tell people that cancer left me some positives, they balk at such a thought. Incomprehensible?
Well, before you get it twisted, let me explain ‘dash’. It is not the English word for shatter but rather, pidgin-English for gift.
In Nigerian parlance, you would hear the word dash to mean gift. For example this sentence;
Ezzy dashed me a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold for beating cancer
So yes, that vicious monster did leave me some gifts before she lost her hold and plummeted down. One of such, is appreciation. As an empath, I always prided myself on being a grateful person, that was until cancer. Then I understood what appreciation truly was.
Meanwhile, prior to then, if you woke me up and asked me to list the finer things of life, I could go like
Travels
Hiking, running
Aimlessly strolling through a Museum or Art shop
That thrilling 360 degrees views from a mountaintop
Getting lost in a book
Getting out on the water et al
Until cancer came and humiliated me. I went from she who ran marathons to not being able to hold a plank position. As I write this, I can still feel that crippling and stifling shame spiked with anger, when I ambled off the treadmill at a gym and hobbled to a corner like a nonagenarian.
Although the physio forewarned me, I did not believe him. During an evaluation before shipping me off to Rehab, he warned me.
In his words, “one of the …….
This story was originally published in another publication. Because it is longer than my usual blog post, I am sharing the link instead.
